Jang Gal and Song Cheong opened their eyes to the sound of someone waking them.
“It’s time to get up.”
“Just a little… Just a little longer…”
“Please…”
But the voice reaching their ears was as cold as frost.
“Get up this instant! You call yourselves Embroidered Guards, yet look how soft you’ve gotten! Do I need to drag you out for a proper morning formation before you come to your senses?”
“Gah!”
“N-No, sir!”
The two shot upright at the senior Embroidered Guard’s roar.
Then, in a much gentler voice, he said,
“Wasn’t this something you began because you wanted to demonstrate your loyalty? If you start slacking off now, you’d have been better off never doing it in the first place.”
“…”
“I know it’s difficult, but once you see it through to the end, you’ll be proud of yourself for accomplishing it.”
“Yes…”
Jang Gal and Song Cheong answered obediently while screaming inside.
‘This was never our idea!’
‘We’re not doing this because we want to!’
They thought back to the incident that had started this entire disaster.
Of course, they knew perfectly well that Eun Seo-ho had accomplished a great deal and possessed exceptional ability.
After all, not only the Emperor but even the Commander of the Embroidered Guard seemed ready to bend over backward for Eun Seo-ho.
And that was exactly what they found so infuriating.
‘A lowly merchant sticking his nose into affairs of state! He should know his place!’
Then something happened that poured oil straight onto the flames of their resentment.
The Emperor granted Eun Seo-ho limited immunity.
The Embroidered Guard possessed the authority to arrest and interrogate anyone, at any time, if they were suspected of treason.
Jang Gal and Song Cheong had been waiting for an opportunity to put Eun Seo-ho through the wringer, only for that opportunity to vanish before their eyes.
They had barely managed to swallow their frustration when, by sheer coincidence, they ended up assigned to work alongside Eun Seo-ho.
On the morning of their departure.
Gwon Jik happened to be in an audience with the Emperor, while everyone else was too busy making their own preparations to pay attention to what was happening around them.
So the two quietly sidled up to Eun Seo-ho.
They weren’t even responsible for inspecting the supplies, but they used that as an excuse to start provoking him in voices low enough that no one else could hear.
His immunity might protect him to a certain extent, but it was still limited immunity.
If he laid hands on an Embroidered Guard, he would not be able to escape responsibility for it.
His immunity might be revoked, or the Emperor himself might punish him.
So they insulted him.
They even made lewd remarks about his fiancée.
‘Hit me! Come on, throw a punch already!’
‘Shouldn’t he be drawing his sword by now?’
‘You want to beat the hell out of me, don’t you? I know you do.’
‘Still not enough? Should I needle him a little more?’
But then…
By the time they came back to their senses, they were pulling carts instead of horses.
While Eun Seo-ho rode comfortably in a carriage, no less.
The real problem was that Eun Seo-ho was far too good with words, and somehow he had transformed the two of them into deeply loyal Embroidered Guards in everyone else’s eyes.
Which meant they couldn’t simply stop.
To explain that they had never volunteered for this, they would first have to explain exactly what they had done.
And then they would become men who had acted against the Emperor’s command, which would be far worse.
For the first two days, they remained in denial about the fact that they were actually being made to pull carts.
By the third day, however, reality had finally sunk in.
They really were going to pull those carts all the way to Springview Fortress.
Naturally, all their resentment turned toward the man who had put them in this miserable situation.
‘Eun Seo-ho! You piece of fucking shit!’
‘Just you wait! I’ll make you pay for this!’
Unfortunately, they had no way to vent their anger.
Eun Seo-ho was almost always with Gwon Jik, and whenever the two of them were given time to rest, they immediately passed out from exhaustion.
After several days of traveling like that, another glimmer of hope began to grow in their hearts.
Surely, after they had gone this far, someone would finally tell them that they had suffered enough and suggest they stop.
But no one did.
Not a single person told them they could quit.
They gradually began to sink into despair.
‘I didn’t join the Embroidered Guard for this!’
‘I miss my mother.’
‘What’s the point of life anyway? Might as well sing while I suffer.’
After walking and walking and walking while dragging the carts behind them, they somehow began to sympathize with the hardships of horses, and the sheer injustice of their lives was beginning to bring tears to their eyes when they finally arrived at the Eunhae Merchant Group Headquarters in Hubei.
Dragging their aching bodies along, the two prepared to depart once again.
First, everyone gathered to hear an explanation of the route ahead, and at last, hope returned to their eyes.
“After traveling for four hours, we’ll board a ship and head for Yunnan…”
They were going by ship.
Which meant they wouldn’t have to keep torturing themselves by pulling those carts.
Once they boarded the ship, they would finally have some free time, which meant they would finally have a chance to get revenge on Eun Seo-ho.
‘Just you wait!’
‘I swear I’ll get you back for this!’
Neither man had yet realized that the entire situation was nothing more than the result of their own stupidity.
Then, four hours later.
“Hmm. The river’s water level is lower than I expected. Traveling by ship doesn’t look feasible.”
“Yes. Twenty or thirty people wouldn’t be a problem, but with the size of our current search party, we’d need a large ship. I don’t think a ship that size can make it through.”
“Then we’ll change the plan. We proceed overland.”
Which meant Jang Gal and Song Cheong would have to continue pulling the carts.
Thud.
Their legs gave out beneath them, and both men collapsed to the ground.
* * *
I snickered.
Warrior Jang Gal and Warrior Song Cheong had suddenly dropped to the ground with expressions that looked as though life itself had lost all meaning.
They must have been looking forward to traveling by ship.
Unfortunately for them, almost no rain had fallen since this year’s harvest, so the river was running low.
That made traveling by ship impossible.
I had known about the situation, but I hadn’t mentioned it in advance because there was always a chance conditions might change.
“Oh no! Are you two all right?”
“Uwaaaaaagh!”
“Huuuuugh!”
The two suddenly burst into heartbroken sobs.
I quietly approached them and addressed the people beginning to gather around.
“They must have been worried that traveling by ship would prevent them from pulling the carts and demonstrating their loyalty to His Majesty. Now that they’ve learned they can continue this arduous pilgrimage and prove their devotion, it seems they’ve been overcome with joy.”
“Ah… So that’s what this is.”
“Well, if that’s the reason.”
Everyone nodded in understanding before dispersing again, and I turned to the two men still weeping.
“As important as demonstrating your loyalty may be, you should still take care of yourselves.”
“…”
“Why don’t you stop now and travel comfortably with the rest of us?”
The two glared at me.
“No! We’ll see this through to the very end!”
The fury blazing in their eyes as they rejected my offer told me everything I needed to know.
As expected, they still hadn’t learned their lesson.
Then they could suffer some more.
If they were going to refuse my help, I had no reason to force it on them.
“Understood. Then I’ll continue counting on you both.”
“…”
You’re going to regret refusing the hand I just offered you.
The farther south we go, the worse the real suffering is going to get.
As I headed back to my carriage, I asked Palgap,
“Palgap. Do you think I’m being too harsh?”
“They were the ones who picked a fight with you first, Young Master. Besides, this is a lesson they need to learn. They ought to know that if anyone messes with our Young Master, you’ll turn a man into a cart horse and make him pull freight.”
The escort guards around us nodded in agreement.
When those two warriors had first tried to provoke me, I had already seen through their intentions.
Their plan had obviously been to make me strike them so they could catch me committing a crime on the spot.
They’re a thousand years too early if they think they can trap me that easily.
Why else would His Majesty have sent me here to assist the Embroidered Guard?
Isn’t it because I possess something the Embroidered Guards themselves lack?
Most of the Embroidered Guards understood that, which was why they treated me favorably.
After all, none of them knew when they might need to ask for my help someday.
The only people who disliked me were the ones who either failed to understand that fact or deliberately refused to acknowledge it.
And this incident also served as a warning to men like them.
They were free to dislike me.
But if they actually came after me, they should be prepared to suffer just as badly as those two.
We continued farther south.
Our route would take us through Hunan, then Guizhou, before finally reaching Yunnan.
Northern Hunan, which we would pass through first, was relatively flat, but Guizhou was filled with mountainous terrain.
In other words, those two would be dragging their carts up and down mountain roads.
“We’re in Guizhou now.”
At Young Lady Seohyang’s words, I nodded.
“Yes.”
I could read the emotion in Young Lady Seohyang’s eyes.
She missed her home.
She missed her family.
If I had my way, I would have let her visit her parents, but we were in the middle of a mission, so it simply wasn’t possible.
Young Lady Seohyang seemed to read my expression, because she gave a small shake of her head.
“I’m all right. I don’t want you neglecting the mission because of me.”
“We should have a little more freedom on the way back to Beijing.”
“All right. But please don’t push yourself too hard for my sake. I’m already grateful just to be alive like this.”
Her words left me with nothing to say.
Before long, we arrived at Springview Fortress in Yunnan.
“Welcome! We’ve been waiting for you.”
The Fortress Lord of Springview Fortress personally came out to greet us.
One of the Fortress Lord’s empty sleeves fluttered in the wind.
It was a lingering scar from what had happened before.
“Thank you for giving us such a warm welcome.”
At Commander Gwon Jik’s words, the Fortress Lord bowed his head.
“I can only thank Heaven and Earth that I have the chance to welcome all of you here once again.”
“I, too, am grateful to have the opportunity to return.”
At that moment, the man standing behind him stepped forward.
“I am Yeon Yu-mun, the Fortress Lord’s eldest son. It is an honor to greet you, Great Heroes. Please follow me. I’ll show you to your accommodations.”
The others followed him away, while I approached the Fortress Lord.
“Fortress Lord, I’m glad to see you again.”
“As am I. Have you been well?”
“Yes.”
“I never imagined you would return here alongside the Embroidered Guard. What brings you all the way out here?”
I gave him the official explanation.
“I may not amount to much, but as a Deputy Merchant Lord, I was assigned to oversee the search party’s supplies.”
“I see. But a Sword Tomb! I can’t imagine what could possibly be happening.”
“Hahaha. Neither can I.”
As I answered, I casually swept my gaze across the onlookers watching us.
Although we were supposedly conducting this mission in secret, we weren’t exactly making a serious effort to conceal our movements.
That was because I wanted to draw out the original owner of the scroll I had discovered in the haunted manor in Luoyang.
It was bait.
And judging by the crowd watching us now, it seemed to be working exactly as intended.
.
.
.
Once I reached the accommodations prepared for me, I washed and changed my clothes.
Afterward, I wandered around for a while to enjoy the scenery, when I spotted Commander Gwon and Warrior Seo Im heading toward the Fortress Lord’s office.
“There you are.”
Just then, I heard Young Lord Yeon Yu-mun’s voice behind me.
I turned around and greeted him.
“You look well.”
“Yes. It’s been almost a year since we last met. But more importantly, is it really true that there’s a Sword Tomb here in Springview Fortress?”
“That’s what I’ve been told.”
“Could it be… that everything that happened before was actually preparation for an attempt to seize the Sword Tomb within our fortress?”
So he had managed to reason that far on his own.
He certainly wasn’t slow-witted.
“I can’t say for certain, but I suspect the same thing.”
“Whew…”
He let out a long sigh.
“Even now, thinking back on what happened makes my blood run cold. Still, our fortress survived because of you. For that, I can only be grateful.”
I simply smiled without answering.
“By the way, has Springview Fortress been peaceful lately? And what about the rest of Yunnan?”
He nodded at my question.
“Yes. Nothing unusual has happened so far. But there’s no guarantee something like that won’t happen again…”
Well, it had only been a year.
I could hear the frustration in Young Lord Yeon Yu-mun’s voice, along with his anxiety over Springview Fortress’s future.
That was when it happened.
“Young Lord! Young Lord!”
A man who appeared to be one of the Fortress Lord’s attendants came looking for Young Lord Yeon Yu-mun.
“What is it?”
“The Fortress Lord is asking for you.”
He followed the attendant toward the Fortress Lord’s office, while I returned to my own quarters.
The next day.
We rose early in the morning.
Today was the day we would begin the search in earnest.
After finishing my Breathing Meditation, I immediately opened the door and stepped outside.
I had sensed someone waiting for me out there.
“My Lord.”
Escort Guard Myeong Jong, who had been standing watch outside my door, cupped his fist in salute.
“Young Lord Yeon is waiting for you.”
“All right.”
I turned and walked over to Young Lord Yeon Yu-mun.
He wore a deeply troubled expression.
“I heard you were waiting for me.”
“Yes. There’s something I need to discuss with you, so I came to see you first thing this morning.”
The faint shadows beneath his eyes made it clear he had spent the entire night worrying instead of sleeping.
“Go ahead. You can tell me.”
“I’d rather not speak here. Could we go somewhere more private?”
The fact that he had personally come to fetch me told me this was something he wanted kept strictly confidential.
“Lead the way.”
I followed him elsewhere.
He took me to a clearing in the woods behind the fortress.
“This is where I practice my swordsmanship. No one else is permitted to come here.”
“I see. So what could you possibly need to discuss that required bringing me somewhere this secluded?”
“My marriage.”
“What?”
“His Majesty has issued an Imperial Decree. He wants me to marry one of the Princesses.”
Ah…
Only then did I begin to understand why Warrior Seo Im had come all the way here disguised as a man.
A Princess’s marriage carried far more political complications than most people realized, so the Emperor had secretly sent the Princess here.
Then all he had to do was inform the ministers afterward that the Princess was already married.
Still, that was the Emperor for you.
No Imperial envoy would dare come to the place where a Princess had married and start throwing his weight around while extorting the locals.
“Isn’t that good news? What’s the problem?”
“Please tell me the truth. This marriage… is it a trap?”
“…What?”
–TL Notes–
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